The American company Space X says its experiment to bring part of its Falcon rocket down to a soft landing on a floating sea platform has failed.
The company behind the project Space X believed that if the attempt was successfully executed, it would cut the cost of space flight and increase the chance of commercial trips.
The spacecraft was launched on a mission to send a cargo capsule to the International Space Station.
However once the first-stage of the rocket completed its part of this task, it tried to make a controlled return.
The failure of the first ever attempt to recycle a rocket by guiding the Falcon 9's first stage down to a precision landing on an ocean platform was confirmed by SpaceX CEO Elon Musk on Twitter.
Rocket made it to drone spaceport ship, but landed hard. Close, but no cigar this time. Bodes well for the future tho.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 10, 2015T-30 min to Falcon 9 and Dragon launch. Live launch webcast: http://t.co/tdni54hHPm pic.twitter.com/7qRCYxBJkd
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) January 10, 201SpaceX had given the test landing a 50-50 chance of success.The @SpaceX #ISScargo mission is loaded w/ 5,108 pounds of food, water & clothing for astronauts plus @ISS_Research pic.twitter.com/EMMjzVqHCt
— NASA (@NASA) January 10, 2015The launch's primary mission was to send the unmanned Dragon cargo ship to orbit, and that went smoothly after two delays in recent weeks due to rocket problems.
The Dragon cargo vessel should arrive at the space station at 6.12am next Monday, NASA said.
